i'm trading a live account with Helios and Rithmic is absolutely atrocious.

i was annoyed that Sierrachart was cutting off further support for Rithmic and didn't really take their rants about Rithmic seriously but now i can fully understand why Sierrachart finally decided to pull the plug on putting up with Rithmic's bs.

during live trading (on the live, not SIM, Helios account), there have been too many times in which Rithmic disconnects (trading log msg: "Heartbeat has been quiet for..."). you may think this is due to Sierrachart having an inferior bridge to Rithmic but i couldn't even login to Rithmic Trader Pro during these moments of disconnection so it's clearly a Rithmic issue.

not to mention, with Sierrachart, oco orders are stored server-side only after the parent order is filled client-side. so there have been cases in which i placed an order (which is stored server-side), then i got disconnected, then the order i previously placed (which is still stored server-side) got filled BUT b/c my client (Sierrachart) was disconnected at the time of fill, the child orders (stops) weren't submitted.

so you'd end up with a position with no stops and i can't tell you how much that freaked me the fuck out esp when

1) volatility is this high
2) you're so highly leveraged all the time. i actually have a 150k account which has the largest drawdown but since the daily loss limit is $3,300, even just having a 1 contract NQ/ES position is around 50x leverage.

this is why i am constantly requesting Helios for withdrawals of my profits b/c i fear it's just a matter of time before something like this happens again during a crucial moment and it blows up my account.

this is no way to trade at all and it's why i'm quickly moving any profits i make with Helios to my personal account where i have more stable options like CQG routing or Sierrachart's own order routing solution with TT.

CQG isn't totally perfect either but w/e problems i've had with CQG have always had to do with their datafeed, which can easily be solved by simply using the SC Denali datafeed + CQG order routing combo.

Helios had no issues today on live accounts that I'm aware of.

While I'm commenting from Earn2Trade, I'm posting the below on a personal note (since I'm restricted to one account).

Rithmic for live trading is extremely stable. I personally use it for my own trading and use it for my professional client trading as well but I do it directly through RTrader. I too had issues with Rithmic when using Sierracharts. Rithmic blames them, they blame Rithmic, and Sierra has decided to stop supporting Rithmic.

I do not know who is really at fault there but I do know that I've NEVER once had a live trading issue like this with Rithmic trading through RTrader, Bookmap, or Finamark. Maybe once or twice over the past few years has it temporily disconnected but that's less than I found with others I tested. I personally find Rithmic to be fast and stable. The issues that occured today are strictly related to PAPER TRADING as can be seen on the advisory notices on their website: Advisories.

I would advise you, if you're withdrawing your profits from Helios because you're afraid of Rithmic blowing up, I would highly advise speaking with Helios support and working out any issues you have. You're also limiting your ability to have Helios increase your account size by constantly withdrawing all of your profits. They want to see you can be consistent with an increasing account size before they grant you more funding and start removing rules like the ability to trade through news and removing your daily loss limit. Not to mention they may allow other data feeds, like CQG, to accounts that have reached certain consistency.

Not to mention they may allow other data feeds, like CQG, to accounts that have reached certain consistency.

Hold on - I was told I cannot use CQG on a live account because it lacks some risk management settings. Has this changed?

You can't on the Gauntlet or initially on funded because, as you stated, it doesn't offer the risk settings Helios needs. However, once you've proved yourself and continually grow your account, Helios starts to remove rules. Once those rules are removed that needed Rithmic, and you want to cover the cost of the other platform, you can use it as long as the FCM supports it!

Great. I always need a goal in sight so what is the specific PnL that needs to be in the account to use CQG?

I'd advise talking directly to Helios about that. I might also ask them to confirm any fees that might be charged by CQG.
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OK. By the way - I have always thought that Helios=Ryan Masten only. Can you reveal how many people there are in Helios (not counting traders)?